I recommend avoiding details and shading the piece until its fully sketched in
you can blend charcoal with a piece of tissue if you use your fingers it will leave prints
if you are in the process of shading place a piece of paper between your hand and the paper to avoid smuging
you can use a slice of bread to remove the graphite like a stretch eraser
Édouard Manet lived close by, at 4 rue de Saint-Pétersbourg. Two years after moving to the area he showed his painting The Railway, (also known as Gare Saint-Lazare) at the Paris Salon in 1874. portrays a woman with a small dog and a book as she sits facing us in front of an iron fence; a young girl to her left views the railroad track and steam beyond it.
